Bringing food chemistry to life

On Nova Science Now on PBS last night they reported about work studying the contents of small liquid inclusions in New Mexico’s Saledo salt beds that were  laid down in the Permian era 250 million years ago. The report showed fascinating electron micrographs of mats of cellulose in the inclusions – hi-fiber salt  no less! [...]

Calculus… From “Built on Facts” Sunday Function #40. It might make some of those pesky integrals a bit more real for you. These concepts are very important in food engineering, which affects, and is affected by, the chemistry. Squirrely physics Image attribution: Matt Springer – Built on Facts Also from “Built on Facts” from a [...]

A new post “Forays in Fermentation” from Jeremy at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, via Research Blogging highlights two recent papers on fermentation that go beyond the usual beer/wine paradigm that I see in some students that choose our fermentation option. The papers are Nout, M. (2009). Rich nutrition from the poorest – cereal fermentations in [...]

So far this summer I have given two short workshops using wheat, flour, bread,  and baking as a way of bringing food chemistry to life. The First group was the Oregon Farm Bureau’s  Summer Agriculture Institute on the theme of Grain-Gluten-and Great bread. And started with the quote from Henri Fabre a 19th C French [...]

We use silly putty in class, both the Food Systems Chem and my graduate Food Polymer Science classes,  to get a handle [literally] on aspects of non-linear visco-elasticity of materials. Mike the Mad Biologist at ScienceBlogs linked to this video story at 30threads. It pays to know your raw materials Don’t mix up your mung [...]

Pita is made from one layer of dough, not as some think 2 layers that are joined at the edges. So how does if puff? The dough is often given a final proof that is drier than for risen breads. When the bread hits the hot oven the slightly dry skin seals. Really thin flat [...]